Nigeria’s international and Super Eagles forward, Ademola Lookman, capped a stellar performance in the 2024 football season by winning the African Men Player of the Year award in a ceremony organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) at Marrakech, Morocco. Lookman beat other contenders like Simon Adingra of Cote d’Ivoire, Ashraf Hakimi of Morocco, Sehrou Guirassy of Guinea and Ronwen Williams of South Africa to clinch the prestigious award.
It was also a night of glory for the female national team, the Super Falcons, as it won the Women Team of the Year, while its goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie, won the Female Goalkeeper of the Year for the second straight year. The Super Falcons was also the continent’s best women’s team on FIFA’s ranking in 2024.
Interestingly, both Osimhen and Lookman made the CAF’s Men Best XI team. We congratulate Lookman, Nnadozie, the Super Falcons and others for cementing Nigeria’s position as one of the leading nations in African football. In a year characterised by lows and near misses, Lookman and Nnadozie have tremendously enhanced the image of Nigerian sports.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has congratulated the winners and described them as worthy ambassadors of Nigeria by showcasing their talents and bringing honour to the country. He believes that the recognition would inspire other Nigerians to remain steadfast in pursuing their dreams. With the victory, Lookman became the 6th Nigerian to win the CAF POTY award. He succeeds another Nigerian international, Victor Osimhen, who won it in 2023. Lookman has also joined the list of former Super Eagles stars who had won the award, including Rashidi Yekini (1993), Emmanuel Amuneke (1994), Kanu Nwankwo (1996/1999), and Victor Ikpeba (1997).
Lookman’s victory may have been made possible by the support of his teammates at the Super Eagles, who won silver at the 2024 AFCON held in Cote d’Ivoire early this year. His club coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, deserves commendations for grooming him into a star player at Atalanta, where he steered the team to win the 2024 Europa Cup with a hattrick.
The rise of Lookman to the top is a great story of hard work and resilience. He has had stints with Everton, Fulham and Leicester City of England before moving over to RB Leipzig in Germany. But his transfer to Atalanta in the 2023 football season transformed his career. Lookman has also admitted that switching his nationality to Nigeria to play for the Super Eagles enhanced his international status. Lookman’s bold move to play for Nigeria should be emulated by other players in Europe with Nigerian heritage. Former England U21 teammate of Lookman, Tammy Abraham, born to Nigerian parents, was approached by the Super Eagles handlers to play for Nigeria the same time Lookman was approached to play for the country.
While Lookman accepted to switch his nationality, Abraham opted to play for the Three Lions of England, where he was featured briefly and dumped by the English team. We hope that Lookman’s exploits with the Super Eagles and the unalloyed love shown by Nigerian fans would convince others to see reason to answer the national call.
We urge Lookman not to rest on his oars. African football history is replete with star players who have won it more than once. Nigeria’s Kanu Nwankwo, Cameroon’s Roger Milla and Thomas Nkono, Egypt’s Mohammed Salah, Côte d’ Ivoire’s Didier Drogba and Sadio Mane of Senegal are among the players who have won it twice. Samuel Eto of Cameroon and Yaya Toure of Cote d’ Ivoire have the most wins with four awards each. Lookman could rival their records if he continues playing the way he is at the moment for club and country.
We call on the Nigerian sports authorities to urgently take decisive action in appointing a world-class coach for the Super Eagles to guide the team to qualify for the next FIFA World Cup. We say this because qualifying the team for the next World Cup is a task that must be done. We strongly believe that it is an achievable goal. Moreover, Nigeria has some of the best players in Africa at the moment. Our players are in top clubs in Europe and other places. It would be tragic if Nigeria fails to make it to the next Mundial to be hosted by United States (US), Mexico and Canada.